11/24/10 – Well I guess Google just wanted us to feel really thankful this season!  QS values are raising.  Scores are raising, however, they are not fully back to normal.  QS is up throughout the entire accounts but in some groups keywords are not back to their previous QS.  What was a 10/10 is current 6/10 (was 3/10 with QS bug) Check your accounts and comment below!

What a way to start the week.

Seems there might be something going on with the reporting of Quality Score in AdWords again.

Little background first.

Last month Google had a problem with the reporting of Quality Score in the AdWords Interface.  They issued a Known Issue related to Quality Score.  This Known Issue reports that some advertisers were effected between October 26-27, 2010 with a sudden decrease in Quality Score.  The low quality score reported did not reflect the performance of accounts and the issue was repaired.

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I was surprised last week to see quality score in a client account declining.  Quality scores dropped overnight throughout the account.    I can prove the keywords were running fine a week ago becaused I has paused some keywords that still sit with the Quality Score as reflected last week (screenshot below).  This ‘seems’ to be effecting performance because I am seeing higher first page bid estimates for many keywords.  However these keywords still continue to accrue impressions, clicks and are still holding strong at their previous positions.  The issue ‘seems’ to be only cosmetic but I am not completely sure.

I am not the only one.  There is a pretty full crowd in this thread in the AdWords Help Forum already on the issue.

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Another example of 10/10 keywords reduced to 4/10 – sad isn’t it?

The lines highlighted in Yellow represent keywords PAUSED last week.  As you can see their Quality Score while paused is 10/10.  If I was to enable these keywords their QS will drop.

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Now, for the record this is an account that has been running since 2002 and has excellent history, CTR, and qualtiy score, and has been running that way for a years.  There has been no decline in CTR on the account.  There is no reason for this decline.

Diving into all my client accounts to look things over.

Is anyone else having this issue?  Not just low QS, plenty of reasons for that, but QS that suddenly tanked last week?

Comments welcome please!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Google has confirmed that there is indeed a problem. A Google employee stated this today in this AdWords Help Forum thread.

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“It is understood that what is being described here is what appears to be a similar but separate issue that folks started seeing on Friday evening, November 19th.

Engineering is taking a look into this, as a priority – and I will report back in this thread when I know more.”

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.IMPORTANT NOTE: the effected accounts I have seen still seem to be performing well.

I do have concerns about the future effect from advertiser that do raise their bids unknowingly. Google has yet to make what I would call a proper statement regarding the Quality Score reporting issue.  This  concerns me as advertisers who are unaware that their account is in fact running fine raise their bids which in turn forces other advertisers to raise their bids to maintain their previous ad rank – AKA Bid inflation.

Hopefully enough advertisers will get the message and sit tight while Google works out the issue instead of increasing bids or panicking.

Good to know Google is on it.  I will post again with whatever updates become available.

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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

UPDATE: 7/5/10 TOOL REPAIRED!

If you have used the diagnostics tool recently to see if your ads are running and the tool said NO don’t panic yet.  The tool is experiencing some issues that is causing it to incorrectly report the diagnostic test.

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Ad Diagnostic Tool Showing Incorrect Message

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Report this issue here

If you think the Ad Diagnostic tool is providing inaccurate info try the Ad Preview Tool at http://www.google.com/adpreview to search for your ads.  This is not the most optimal method to test your ads but if you see your ads running it will at least give you peace of mind.  The preview tool will also allow you to see your ads without causing impressions to your account.

Note: if your budget is not lasting the day or your ads are set to standard delivery vs. accelerated you may not always see your ads displayed in the preview tool.  If you do not see your ads displayed try several keyword variations….again, not the best alternative but at least you can do this searching for yourself freely without effecting your CTR.

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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

Currently only conversions are being reported in the data table.

Google is working to correct the issue.

AdWords Recently Reported Known Issues

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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

Advertisers will need to sit tight while Google works hard to repair this issue.  I am sure this one got their attention immediately :)

Advertisers Can not Enter Billing Info – Their ads will not run until this issue is repaired by Google.

If you have encountered this issue please report it on the AdWords Known Issues Page.

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Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

Owner of Clinks Web Service & AdWordsPI in Chicago, Illinois

Twitter: Kim Clink on Twitter – AWHE on Twitter

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